Designing a New Academic Library from Scratch

In this issue brief, Ithaka S+R senior anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster asks what it would be like to design academic libraries based not on precedent, but rather on everything we can learn right now about the work practices of the people who already use them. Foster demonstrates how through participatory design we can build a new type of library that considers both the practical needs of the community and the higher ideals of cultural institutions.

Copyright 2014 Ithaka S+R. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
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Ithaka S+R helps academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Our work also aims to broaden access to higher education by reducing costs and improving student outcomes.

Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the
academic community use digital technologies to preserve the
scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in
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